Necrophobic
Darkside

THE REVIEW

Black Moon Rising lasts less than three minutes, the best of the album is all there.
Dissection wrote Night’s Blood, Necrophobic wrote Black Moon Rising.

Swedish black-death, or death-black if you prefer. The impact and the power of one mixed with the coldness and evocativeness of the other. Essential are the acoustic guitars to create solemnity and a bit of delicacy, for what the genre allows, very little, obviously… The listener, stirred from moderately to extremely, otherwise they would listen to something else, can travel with imagination through woods, fjords, and mountains where eternal ice reigns, consistently thinking of nights illuminated by the cold light of the full moon, to which wolves pay homage with vehement howls.

Compared to Dissection, there is less melody here and unfortunately also less inspiration. The best of Necrophobic is their debut The Nocturnal Silence, where there's very little black metal, but it doesn't matter because pitch-black abounds. It's no coincidence that the decline in quality coincides with the departure of the founder Dave Blackmoon Parland, here as a guest guitarist only on the already mentioned Black Moon Rising, definable hence as his song. He could have thought a bit more before leaving Necrophobic for Dark Funeral, but that's how it went.

Darkside has always left me with the impression of premature ejaculation, perfect first track, followed by good songs alternating with useless instrumental fillers. However, towards the end of the album, Jon Nödtveidt duets with singer Tobias Sidegård and what can you do, Jon is Jon, have to give four stars.